Carrying an infant for a long period of time can be quite fatiguing. To alleviate the problem of fatigue, strollers have been used as an auxiliary conveyance vehicle for infants for some time. A stroller may best be described as a four-wheeled folding carriage designed as a chair in which an infant may be manually pushed.
However, even in today's day and age, manually pushing a stroller can be tiresome, as well, especially when used in crowded shopping malls or amusement parks.
Many of the strollers in use today lack the necessary and essential safety protective measures and equipment that will protect the infant.
Power driven conveyances, such as power driven wheelchairs are often too awkward and cumbersome to use. The necessary drive components have resulted in relatively heavy and awkward constructions. Because the batteries, with their associated drive motors are significantly heavy, the frame design must be of a more rigid construction. Typically, these power driven wheelchairs have heavy-duty frames to support all of the equipment. These designs generally result in configurations that are not easily folded or disassembled compactly so that it can be transported in a standard passenger vehicle.
The following prior art discloses teachings of motively operated conveyances that often are too heavy and awkward to use, lack the convenience of portability and are deficient in safety apparatus, especially when conveying an infant.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,412,688, granted Nov. 1, 1983, to P. Giordani, discloses a wheeled support structure for a seat of a baby's push-type chair. The structure includes two flat side frames connected by crosspieces, each of which has a pair of shafts pivoted together and provided with wheels.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,156,266, granted Oct. 20, 1992, to R. G. Boyer, et al., discloses a modular power driven wheelchair whose wheeled base frame is adapted for easy mounting and dismounting of a seat module. The wheelchair is comprised of a base frame, having wheels, a seat module, a battery module, and a controller module to control battery powered operation of one or more drive motors. The base and seat modules are designed for easy size adjustment to accommodate the child, as the child grows in size.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,307,890, granted May 3, 1994, to Huo-Chang Huang, discloses an improved chassis structure for a child driven electric car, which can be safely remote controlled. The pedals on the car have a starting switch and a braking switch. Remote operation by an adult controls the direction of movement to prevent the car from going into a dangerous area to avoid injury to the child.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,713,585, granted Feb. 3, 1998, to G. M. Curtis, et al., discloses a manually push propelled stroller, having a plurality of wheels. A brake handle is moveably mounted to the push handle. The braking assembly precludes rotation of the wheels during the absence of an attendant grasping the brake handle.
The present invention differs from the aforementioned prior art in that the apparatus is not limited to the manual propulsion of a child occupied vehicle, such as a push propelled stroller, nor to a moveably mounted push handled braking system for a push-type stroller. For motor driven vehicles, it differs from Huang, who provides for the over-ridden remotely controlled child operated, electrically driven vehicle, and from Boyer, et al., who provides a motorized wheelchair that is increasingly size adjustable as the occupant increases in size.
Accordingly, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a safely operated lightweight modularized infant stroller having a motorized propulsion system.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a safely operated lightweight modularized motor driven infant stroller having the essential safety apparatus to protect the infant passenger being transported.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a safely operated lightweight modularized infant stroller having a motorized propulsion system, having a controlled acceleration and deceleration to protect the infant passenger being transported.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a speed dial to aid in setting the desired set point velocity.
It is still yet another object of the present invention to provide a safely operated lightweight modularized motor driven infant stroller having a set of dual switches, one for each hand, so that when both are simultaneously depressed, the DC drive motors become energized; thereby creating a safe startup.
It is still yet a further object of the present invention to provide a safely operated lightweight modularized infant stroller having a covered housing for the battery to aid in the removal of the battery and to further protect the infant passenger from coming in contact with the enclosed battery.
Additionally, it is another object of the present invention to provide a safely operated lightweight modularized infant stroller having an operating lever to disengage the DC drive motors, in the event the system becomes inoperative, such as may be caused by the battery becoming discharged after frequent use.
A final object of the present invention to provide a safely operated lightweight modularized infant stroller having a parking brake system to be applied when the stroller is not in use, thereby preventing the stroller to inadvertently roll down an inclined plane.
These as well as other objects and advantages of the present invention will be better understood and appreciated upon reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.